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working at home

When you stop to consider how much of your life is spent being involved in your job, it is shocking. There is rushing to get ready for work, hurrying to get to work on time, getting all your work done, getting back home in rush hour, getting to sleep so you can get up on time to start the whole rut over again. Really, the only other activity that gets as much time as work is sleep if you can squeeze it in! You really must, you know because if you collapse from the stress and exhaustion who will do all that you do?

If you have small children it is even more effort to get to work, not to mention you do have responsibilities to create a ‘home’ and to be there for your family. While as adults we may realise the necessity of working to support our families and we may even try to make our kids understand, to a child’s mind the only thing that seems to stick is you are not there. When you think about it, to a kid it is their waking hours when you are away at work. Nice touch to be able to spend an hour or two with them out of a 24-hour day.

This is why, particularly for people with kids that it makes so much sense to work at home one way or the other; either by convincing your employer to at least let you work from home part-time or by starting your own business. When you start to consider other things besides time, like money, you have another whole level of reasoning of why it would be best if you can make the arrangements to work at home.

Let’s calculate how much you spend on commuting/traveling to and from work, which usually is not in any way repaid to you by your employer. This calculation should include public transit costs or gasoline, and if you drive, add the parking, bridge tolls, and auto maintenance. Then there are costs that come in the ‘getting ready for work’ category, such as grooming, clothing, dry cleaning, etc.; along with eating lunches out unless you have time to make a bag lunch.

If you have small children you are likely paying a large percent of your income for child care at the minimum. Again this is in addition to the fact that your child is growing up without your presence most of the time. Not to make you feel guilty as it is a fact of life, even with two parent households, it is necessary financially to have two incomes; but again they just don’t really understand.

When you work at home your time is really your own. Not that you can slack off because you really do need to work at your business aggressively, especially if self-employed. But the point is you can work your job around your life instead of the job running your life 90% of the time. That means if you want to do your work at night, or half in the morning and half at night, or maybe have a day off in the middle of the week, that is up to you. You can then make time for your kids activities and to participate with them – and still get your work done on time!

If you work at a demanding full-time job and have a gnarly commute to boot, you probably are not real enthused about spending more time working to start a home business so you can be making money on the side. However this is the very thing you should be doing. It may help to look at it as a hobby – one that you are interested in and find to be a fun project that you look forward to.

The motivation doesn’t even have to be making money – you can imagine not having that grizzly commute and just working from home someday, kicked back with your feet up, enjoying the journey as much as the thought of the eventual destination. The point is this could be critical someday, so find a reason to love it and pour whatever is left of yourself by the time you get home into it.

We can never know what is around the corner. Whether it is going to be something that helps or something that hinders. Therefore we need to be prepared, and making the most money now, while you still can, is a wise decision. There is a whole laundry list of possible disasters of varying magnitudes that could befall you and your family. If you had some money saved and/or an alternate way to support yourself well-established, landing on your feet would be a lot more sure.

So many things that we may have grown up being accustomed to are either gone or in a precarious state. You just never know what will happen to the company you are depending on to pay you a pension. Their investments can tank just like your own. There is no longer the concept of ‘too big to fall’. We have seen the biggest corporations fall to their knees and it can happen to individuals as well, as a result.

We saw what happened to millions of people in the last ‘recession’ where people lost their money on the stock market and even lost their homes that they worked all their lives to buy. We saw people who were reaching retirement age realize they had insufficient retirement funds and instead of planning a trip to Cabo they find themselves looking for part-time jobs for senior citizens. It’s just tragic. It’s heartbreaking to imagine looking forward all your life every day to something that is only a mirage, built with ‘funny money’.

What is the risk for you to invest your spare time in starting a home business to start making money so that you can feel a little more secure? For one thing, if nothing catastrophic happens where you need the money, you may be pleasantly surprised when you see you actually have enough money saved to buy something you really want but felt you couldn’t afford, like a new car or to take a vacation now while you still can.

The bottom line is it isn’t a game – if you are going to start a home business you need to take it seriously. Your home is a ‘kicked back’ environment, and lots more relaxed than the hostile corporate or retail work environment; however this could mean that you have to even more so be really determined and focused – absolutely committed, so that you will stay motivated to take care of business.

There are many things to consider in determining whether starting a home business is feasible for you. Some things may seem obvious, others not so much. The first thing to do is discover the right mindset.

You want to keep an open mind – open to all possibilities, which is the opposite of being skeptical or negative. At the same time you need to be realistic though. Be sure to do your due diligence so that you don’t make the wrong decision that causes you to take the wrong action, such as taking a gamble with more than you can afford to lose.

Life does involve taking risks but you want to minimize the risk by being informed and not rushing or acting from your emotions rather than your logic. Not gambling with more than you can afford to lose of course is a wise decision. Taking a few small risks may be necessary to get anywhere in this life.

For example losing $10-20 to take a chance that you will find something you need would be unfortunate, but will not ruin you. On the other hand gambling with the month’s rent money would be disastrous if you lost it, so don’t even go there. Don’t speculate, imagining you will get your money back in time to pay the rent. What if you don’t? Then what?

So starting with yourself you need to determine what you want to do, and you need a few more details than ‘to make money from home’. Do you like marketing and/or sales? If you have never done it before would you like to learn how and accept that there will be work involved and it may be unpaid work until you get going?

If you are not crazy about marketing and sales that is understandable and so you should decide what it is that you could do to earn money from home. However you need to understand that whatever the business is, if you want to find customers and make money you will need to do a certain amount of marketing and advertising to generate sales whether you love it or hate it!

Ideally you could pay for some services in this regard but the truth is most people starting a home business are doing it because they don’t have enough money. Typically they start out with a small operating budget and as such need to learn how to do things for themselves.

Note that marketing and selling on the Internet is probably 150% less expensive than offline; (think in terms of saving for example on paper, printing, postage, phones, etc). Just as a home business is 250% less costly than paying rent in a storefront or office building; (all you need is some space and a computer with an Internet connection).

Almost everything you need to do to promote your business online can be done for free if you are willing and able to devote your time consistently. Exactly WHAT your business will be will determine how much it would cost you to do it.

For example you may want to sell some products like a ‘manufacturer’s representative’, selling products that are technically owned by others – an ‘independent consultant’; Or you may wish to create your own products – anything from software to arts & crafts gifts; or provide a service such as web design, ghostwriting, search engine optimization, customer service or technical support.

Now just because you don’t know exactly how to do something that seems attractive to you does NOT mean you can’t do it. It just means you will have to learn or you will need to partner up with somebody who can help you with that particular facet of developing your home business plan.

Whether you can pull it off to work from home, either full or part-time, you will see how you can really start to get ahead by saving expenses. You will see in some situations it just doesn’t pay to work out of the home.

For two huge examples, gasoline and other commute expenses for travel to and from your job that you are not reimbursed by your employer; and child care – you can save hundreds of dollars by staying home with your kids. This is not even to mention the value to your child’s well being by having at least one parent who is there for them all the time.

Another way that you can see saving money by staying home to do your work is if you are locked into a salary or hourly wage; on the one hand you realize it is not possible to get an increase in pay until the next annual performance evaluation, and on the other the ‘cost of living’ and ‘merit’ increases are piddly at best. In some cases they are not a given so you may or may not be able to depend on it.

If you start a business of your own from home you are the one that determines how much you make or not and you can directly affect the bottom line by accelerating your actions to generate more income. So if you are like most average people you live pretty much paycheck-to-paycheck and you usually don’t have anything left over to save by the time you pay all your bills. What you need then is a second income from working from home to increase the amount you are able to save.

Saving is so important on many different levels – saving for a specific reason or not, it really makes sense to have something to ‘fall back on’ if nothing else. We never know when there will be something unexpected that requires extra money which is on top of our normal expenses without a corresponding increase in income!

…Or just to be able to reward yourself from time to time by splurging on a vacation or going first-class. Even having ‘mad money’ which is so much fun to spend, is a good reason to have a second income. There has to be more to life than just mere drudgery day in and day out. We should be enjoying life and the truth is many of us can’t afford to do so. That is a real tragedy.

Many people who are nearing retirement age now saw so many twists and turns with their investments and pensions over the past few decades that they really wish they had used their younger, more productive years to save money for their retirement. So many things that people depended on to be there are not there at least to the degree that they were assumed to be. People are not able to retire completely until they are really way beyond ‘normal’ retirement age. Actually for them it is just perfect to work from home to earn money to supplement their retirement income.

So everybody from families with young children to older folks can greatly improve their lifestyle and level of security by saving money by working from home either part or full time. Get started today!

There are a number of skills that people should acquire when they are going to start a business that involves Internet marketing. The majority are actually important for any endeavor and they are ‘acquired’ from within, such as determination and motivation. They are a part of self-confidence, self-esteem and the desire for accomplishment.

Other skills important for an Internet marketing entrepreneur to hone are for one the ability to stay positive – to never allow themselves to become discouraged when sales are slow or non-existent. So this ability involves faith to always remain positive no matter what you see or don’t see! Just to keep your eye on the prize and don’t worry about anything else.

Another huge skill that is absolutely necessary is the ability to remain focused. In the beginning one needs to know how to focus amid an avalanche of information, emails, claims, banners, etc. (you can almost envision flashing neon lights here). Chaos and confusion is a prevalent atmosphere that can totally overwhelm someone if they do not know how to focus only on what they need to do, and not to allow themselves to be constantly distracted.

Organization is one of those skills that you need for practically anything. To create order out of confusion. To ‘line your ducks up all in a row’ (so you know where they are). Being organized is particularly important for someone who is trying to navigate any new territory. To have only those things that you need in the forefront and to be able to prioritize them will only be possible when all the other unrelated things are out of the way.

Planning is another thing that works together with organization and focus. Just like if you went on a road trip – you would need a map or some kind of directions to get to where you want to go. It is the same with any endeavor where you hope to reach a goal – in this case a successful internet marketing business from home. So lots of information to sift through and much easier if you can determine only the data you need to perform whatever task is at hand.

If it takes making folders with labels – whether virtual or physical, this is a big help to organize your business. ‘As above so below’ – and in this connotation if you clear your desk your mind will be much more clear. If your mind is clear you will be able to function much more efficiently (accurately and quickly) to achieve your goals each day.

Writing is also a key skill for Internet marketing because advertising and marketing, networking, blogging, online communications, etc, all involve writing. It is important that you learn to express yourself clearly because for one example, if you had an off-line business people would come in the store, actually see what you have for sale, and are able to read the specs and details on the box, or to ask a you questions.

Online this is not the case, and you have to be able to convey the details clearly so as not to leave a gaping hole that may stop someone from completing the transaction until they are able to clarify whatever their question is. One should not pander to any inclination for ‘stage fright’ with regard to writing or to cop out by saying they don’t like to write, they can’t write or any other excuse. It is one of those things you will have to learn to overcome if writing is a problem.

For some things of course you can get ghostwriters and/or copywriters to do things for you, but in the long-run it is ultimately to your own advantage to be able to do things for yourself and to be very open and responsive in your communications with prospects, customers and Internet peers.

There are lots of reasons why you may not be able to totally focus on your target when you are planning on building a home business; probably as many reasons as there are hours in the day. Many other things constantly demand your attention and interrupt you repeatedly.

Life gets in the way. You may have a stressful day job, a rough commute, a family, pets, etc. that are important to you and need to be dealt with first. So you have to find time for your home business project and somehow squeeze this extra activity into your busy schedule.

It already sounds like your home business will have the lowest priority, but as long as you at least see it as more important than watching TV or hanging out somewhere with friends, your business will have a chance. So it may be that amid all the chaos that is life, you have to start seeing your business as the target.

Everything else needs to be taken care of so that it will be out of the way and then you can focus on what you need to do to develop your business. At first this will be research and planning. What kind of a business you want will largely be determined by your skills and other resources you may have or need to acquire.

It is always a good idea to map it all out – starting from why you want and need to start a business. Focus on this, because you will need to get and stay motivated throughout the process. You may need some extra encouragement because you are likely pretty tired by the time you get to focus on your business and it is always easy to say ‘later’ or ‘tomorrow’.

There are some really good analogies and ‘mottos’ that you can focus on when you need to push yourself in the right direction. Sometimes that is all it takes to trigger a nice spurt of energy to go that extra mile. Short of a ‘cat nap’ or some quick exercises, you could keep at least one analogy in front of your mind.

For example there is a story about someone on a diet. Of course the target is to lose weight. The dieter is diligent to follow the diet which avoids fattening foods, and to replace them with vegetables or other healthful foods; the dieter exercises regularly to burn calories, measure their success, etc. It is all encompassing to be on a diet!

There are still temptations and some schools of thought would say that this person deserves a splurge. They have worked so hard that they should be able to have that nice piece of triple chocolate cake as a ‘reward’ for their good behavior all week.

Sounds ok until you realize that deserve or not, having that piece of cake is not taking you closer to your goal but taking you further away from it. Even for one lousy piece of cake, you are losing maybe a week of momentum. Whereas if you somehow can get past the temptation and feeling of entitlement, you are sure to reach your goal sooner.

So particularly with your home business’ development do not wait until tomorrow and be squirreling off into different directions. Do you realize you could lose your day job tomorrow? Or that something could happen that requires some extra money right away? Ever think about how much you are paying on your credit card or other debt?

It is of major importance to get out from under all that risk that is just compounding. Take control of your future right now and go that extra mile to reach your target goal of eventual financial independence today. Focus on your target of building a home business, and while it may not be your first priority, it has to be one of the top priorities if you want it to be a success.